Renée Zellweger, India.Arie Turn Out to Celebrate Jimmy Carter’s 100th Birthday in Atlanta
Jimmy Carter won’t turn 100 until Oct. 1, but the birthday celebrations for the former president are already in full swing. Celebrities, family members, and notable public figures all turned out in Atlanta on Sept. 17 to toast Carter, who served in the White House from 1977 to 1981.
“Jimmy Carter 100: A Celebration in Song” took place at the Fox Theatre on Tuesday evening. Artists scheduled to perform included Maren Morris, B-52s, India.Arie, Eric Church, and Drive-By-Truckers, among others. Proceeds from the event went to support The Carter Center, a nonprofit founded by Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter and dedicated to advancing peace and health around the world.
Singer Carlene Carter – no relation to Jimmy – was among the performers at the event. She recalled when her mom and stepdad met the president when he was in office.
“When my mother, June Carter, and her husband, Johnny Cash, went to visit him at the White House, I was pretty jealous, as I thought so highly of him even back then,” she told The Guardian.
In a red carpet interview, Grammy winner India.Arie said that she wasn’t performing much these days. But this occasion was special.
“They called me about this and I said yes immediately,” she told Atlanta News First (via YouTube). “Not only to honor Jimmy Carter and everything that he means to us, but also because we do stand for the same things … I have songs that match his mission because it’s mine too.”
Chuck Leavell, a keyboardist for The Allman Brothers and the Rolling Stones, also took the stage on Tuesay.
“Back when Jimmy Carter was running for president, the Allman Brothers played concerts for his campaign because we believed in his vision for hope and change for America. We could never have imagined what a positive impact he would have on the entire world,” he said in a statement when the event was announced.
Angélique Kidjo, a multi-Grammy-winning musician from Benin, said she was “honored” to pay tribute to Carter.
“I had the pleasure of meeting [Carter] at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert,” she wrote on Instagram. “His speech was really touching, he was talking about the state of the world and how peace is so hard to reach, but yet we cannot give up on peace, no matter how hard it is.”
Actor Renée Zellweger, singer Lalah Hathaway, and civil rights activist Bernice King (the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr.) were also among those who turned out to honor Carter ahead of his landmark birthday.
Although Carter was unable to attend the celebration, several of his family members, including his grandson, Jason Carter, were in attendance. The younger Carter said it was fitting to pay tribute to his granddad through music.
“Whether it was on his record player, on the campaign trail, or on the White House lawn, music has been – and continues to be – a source of joy, comfort, and inspiration for my grandfather,” Carter, who is the chair of the Carter Center Board of Trustees, said in a statement. “I can think of no better way to celebrate him and his 100th birthday than a night of music.”
Carter, who is the longest-living president in U.S. history, has been in hospice care in Georgia since February 2023. He is looking forward to casting a ballot for Kamala Harris in November’s presidential election, Jason Carter said on Tuesday.
“It would be an incredible story at the end of his hundred-year life, that is continuing on, as we know, to have grown up in the segregated South, and for one of his last political acts to be helping elect a Black woman as the president, I do think it would be important,” he said, according to Atlanta News First. “But I also think he wants to see this country brought back together.”
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